They’re losing part of their name, but they could gain a lot of customers as a result.

Weight Watchers
WTW, -2.05%
announced Monday that it’s slimming down its name to just “WW,” with the tagline “Wellness that works.”

It’s the latest in a wave of changes the 55-year-old company has rolled out recently, including ditching artificial ingredients in the food it sells to customers, embracing the social media star DJ Khaled and filmmaker Kevin Smith as celebrity partners, and enlisting powerhouse Oprah Winfrey as both as a brand ambassador and an investor.

Diet is a dirty word

Shedding the message that consumers have to do something right now — monitor their own weight and maybe buy some protein shakes and soups while they’re at it — and focusing instead on the aspirational term “wellness” is right in line with how consumers approach weight loss these days, experts say.

“For the longest time we’ve noticed that consumers don’t like being on a diet, so any notion that you’re doing something restrictive just feels like something that’s not sustainable,” said Darren Seifer, food and beverage industry analyst, for the market research firm NPD Group.

But what is sustainable, especially if you’re in the business of weight loss, is selling customers a lifestyle instead of a specific number on the scale or clothing size.

The goal is to feel better, not look better

Weight Watchers meetings have long revolved around the all-important weigh-in, when members could see in black-and-white exactly how far they’d moved toward their weight goals. With its re-branding, the company says it wants to help people achieve “wellness” — and it’s throwing open its services to “anyone who wants to build healthy habits — whether that means eating better, moving more, developing a positive mindset, focusing on weight…or all of the above,” the company said.

That plays into shifting attitudes about why people manage their weight. The top two reasons people track their weight now is to improve their overall health and to “feel good. “ Looking good is in third place, according to research by Mintel.

WW is also capitalizing on another societal trend: our growing tribalism, Seifer said. Similar to politics, Americans’ approach to health has grown increasingly tribal. People find community around health trends like the paleo diet or intermittent fasting. WW fosters this sense of togetherness on its own private social media network and through group meetings.

Wellness is a journey, not a destination

Younger consumers, particularly millennials, view wellness as a “journey,” said Marissa Gilbert, associate director of health and wellness at the market research firm Mintel. Becoming a wellness brand helps WW align themselves with consumers to say, ‘We’re partnering with you for the long-term,’” Gilbert said. “It extends the life of their consumers if they position themselves as a partner versus a product.’”

And people are willing to pay for that wellness. The global wellness industry is now a $3.7 trillion market, according to the Global Wellness Institute, a group that promotes the industry.

At WW, maintaining that long-term “partnership” between consumer and company ranges in cost. The cheapest starts at $3.07 a week for a “digital” membership — meaning the customer uses an app and can chat online with WW reps when they have questions — to $6.92 a week for “studio” — the program with regular in-person meetings — and $12.69 a week for one-on-one “coaching.” Rival Jenny Craig was $152 a week for a four-week plan that includes food, according to a 2017 comparison on the blog Calorie Bee. Jenny Craig’s website currently lists a deal for customers who want to lose 16 pounds for $16.

How we talk about weight loss matters

By taking the “weight” out of Weight Watchers, the company is joining the changing conversation about obesity in the U.S. As different body types gain acceptance in forums like women’s fashion and advertising, the national discussion about weight loss has changed. There’s even some evidence now that the stigma around being overweight harms people’s health, a paper published last month in the medical journal BMC Medicine found.

Another recent study suggested that patients felt more confident about their own ability to change their behavior when their doctor used the word “obesity” instead of terms like “weight, BMI and fatness.”

“Given all else we know about the pervasiveness of weight stigma and using person-first language to describe obesity, I would expect that Weight Watchers wants their name to fit a rebranding of total wellness without necessitating weight loss,” said that study’s co-author, Christina Hopkins, a clinical psychology doctoral student at Duke University. “Obesity and weight are just one component of wellness — we can’t forget about mental health when talking about diet and exercise. I applaud them for making an effort to consider the whole person’s well-being.”

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Leslie
Albrecht

Leslie Albrecht is a personal finance reporter based in New York. She worked previously as a local news reporter at the New York City neighborhood news website DNAinfo, and as a reporter at the Modesto Bee and Merced Sun-Star, two McClatchy newspapers in California's Central Valley. She is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Follow her on Twitter @ReporterLeslie.

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